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Tipton Questions Agency Officials on Costly Federal Regulations

WASHINGTON—Today, during a House Small Business Committee hearing, Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) questioned federal agency officials on the influx of costly regulations that have been put forward under the Obama Administration.

In 2012 alone, the Administration added 14 major rules at a cost of as much as $19.5 billion, making it the most costly regulatory year on record according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Because small businesses have fewer resources and employees than larger corporations, federal regulations shoulder an increased burden as they struggle to stretch limited resources for compliance, rather than using those resources to expand, upgrade equipment, pay existing employees or create new jobs.

“Unfortunately, rather than improving the climate for small businesses, hundreds more regulations are on the way, many stemming from Dodd-Frank, and the Affordable Care Act,” said Tipton. “We will be hard-pressed to achieve real economic growth until the Administration stops piling regulation upon regulation on small businesses that are responsible for the creation of seven out of every 10 new jobs in this country. Today’s witnesses confirmed that the agencies have ‘pulled back very few’ regulations. That’s a problem, and we must reverse this trend. While many regulations are vital for a safe and fair marketplace, the type of overregulation we are seeing now has strayed from those ends and only serves to grow bureaucracy, rather than foster a healthy economy.”